Monthly Archives: February 2017

I sent my registration by old snail mail just a few days ago and heard back already. I am impressed by the turn around time nice job. I have been going to the HMGS Cold Wars convention since before it started to be held at the Lancaster Host. I don’t go to that many wargaming conventions but I go to Cold Wars every year.

I will admit that the last two years I have thought twice about it. Not 100% sure why but lately have had second thoughts about going for the whole convention. This will be only the third time in 26 years I will not be staying at the hotel the convention is in or associated with. Last year and this year that is by choice.

For many years I have been an ardent supporter of the Lancaster Host but I saw things of late that kind of changed my mind. Still I have plenty of good memories at the Host and have enjoyed many games at Cold Wars so will participate again.

The Closer stand a brigade commander the other a French Division Commander I am finishing

I decided I would try and write every month about what is on my workbench and hopefully take pictures of what I write about as well. In January I had some stuff sitting around from before the new year. In fact in late November I switched gears and started painting some figures for gifts for January.

My nephew wanted D&D type figure for Christmas and had expressed he did not like the pre-painted ones. In the past I have painted him figures for his various interests, Robin Hood, Star Wars, D&D etc. As his birthday is in January I aimed at painting up some figures for his birthday.

I painted a number of figures that offered a variety of subjects that all seemed like they would fit a D&D type adventure. I painted a mounted vampire count from Games Workshop a real old sculpt that would work as a demon as well I suppose. A Goblin from an unknown maker and two Lord of the Rings orcs. I also painted a Game of Thrones figure for Eddard Stark from Game of Thrones. This is figure is by Dark Sword and really is a nice casting. I admit to reading the book a long time ago way before the tv series and have not seen the tv series. I was unsure on the colors to use so I painted it as the box art for the figure.

I took no pictures of any of these figures so people will just have to take my word for it that they came out nice. My nephew did say how much he liked my painted figures which I will admit is a nice complement as I don’t consider myself a good painter. I do put more work into figures like this than wargaming figures though. I don’t get complements for my painting much.

The rest of the things on the workbench for the month is part of my continuing 1859, 1866 & 1870 war project. I have been painting French officers, cannons and mitrailleuse for my French forces. I have turned out a lot of cannon and mitrailleuse with crews in the last couple of months. It had been my main goal until the figures for my nephew.

No real flocking but still base looks alright for a battery

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The close stand is a mitrailleuse which along with artillery I have done painted a number of late.

I also started a unit of French Zouaves as this is something I needed to finish out a corps and add to another division. A new year that really needs me to finish out the French soon. This then would allow me to concentrate on some Prussian cavalry. This would leave me almost where I want to be to put on a large serious of games over multiple periods. Time will tell.

I almost did not notice it had been three years. A couple of days ago actually I noticed that my first post was February 1, 2014. That was a different time for me and I thought things would be different. A blog was a new idea for me but it sounded fun and I wanted to give it a try.

At that time I was working part-time I thought a blog was as good as anything for me to spend spare time on. Further, because of my work schedule it occurred to me that I would paint a lot more figures than normal and that would turn into more gaming as well. Just like many things it did not turn out the way I planned.

Never really felt I got a good handle on blogging and making the blog look good. Also did not paint as many figures as I thought I would. Found that what I did for relaxation sometimes was not something I wanted to be doing all the time. Lastly I spent most of my free time looking for work.

Still here we are three years later with the blog more or less going on. This year I am planning on renewing blogging and trying some new things. Mostly I will concentrate on the games I take part in but also will have posts on my own painting of figures. Wonder what will be happening three years from now? Enjoy your gaming.